Syria

If we see a Ghouta scenario in Idlib, this could be six times worse, affecting 2.3 million people.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria in remarks to Security Council, 16 May ‘18

Overview

Since the conflict erupted in March 2011, Syria has witnessed unprecedented devastation and displacement. More than 5 million Syrians have fled the country and 6 million are internally displaced. With more than 13 million people in need of assistance, the conflict has caused untold suffering for Syrian men, women and children.

At the end of 2017, more than half the country’s hospitals, clinics and primary health care centres were only partially functioning or had been damaged beyond repair.

UN Action at a Glance

The Security Council takes the lead on political action on Syria. In 2017, the 15-member body discussed Syria 33 times – the most frequent topic – in informal consultations. Since 2012, the Council has adopted 23 resolutions on Syria or largely related to Syria.

UN has convened 8 rounds of intra-Syrian talks since 2016 to find a political solution to the conflict.

Intra-Syrian Negotiations

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, is working tirelessly to bring the parties to the negotiating table and an end to the war. Since January 2016, Special Envoy de Mistura has conducted several rounds of intra-Syrian negotiations with talks in late 2017 into 2018, focusing on two key aspects of Security Council resolution 2254 (2015), a schedule and process to draft a new constitution and the holding of elections as the basis for a Syrian-led, Syrian owned process to end the conflict.

Humanitarian

The UN humanitarian response

Over 250,000 people have been killed and over one million injured since the onset of the crisis in 2011. More than half of all Syrians have been forced to leave their homes, often multiple times, making Syria the largest displacement crisis globally. Human rights violations and abuses continue to occur in the context of widespread insecurity and in disregard of international law, international humanitarian law, and human rights law. The UN is working with partners to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need.

UN agencies & humanitarian partners

IIIM

On 21 December 2016, the UN General Assembly established the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to "collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses and to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings ... in national, regional or international courts or tribunals that have or may in the future have jurisdiction over these crimes".